Farewell to Poetry Month

It's the last Friday of Poetry Month. I was thinking that this week I would share some of the poems that have inspired me over my life time.

A good place for me to start, always, is A.A. Milne. Now, some would think Dr. Seuss, and I do love his work - make no mistake. I often am asking myself if I would have green eggs and ham in a boat or with a goat. But the poetry book I grew up with, slept with and scrawled in as a child was The World of Christopher Robin, which was A.A. Milne's collection of poetry works (as opposed to The World of Pooh, which had the stories).

Not sure you can see it, but on the front, in pen, is a picture I drew of me, because I wanted to hang out with Christopher Robin. Back on the shelf, if you look closely, is a newer edition I use more now.

One of the many, MANY dog-eared pages of this book. "Independence" is still a poem I recite to myself - a lot, second only to "Disobedience", "Daffidowndilly", "Waterlily", "Buckingham Palace"..

It is very difficult to just choose one poem I like above all the others; whether it's about James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree, or King John, or Alice, or Mary Jane - they're all good friends.

Later, I fell in love with William Carlos Williams, Adrienne Rich, Emily Dickinson (She Dealt Her Pretty Words Like Blades) and Robert Frost (Blueberries – it's best to read it with Dr. Seuss's cadence in your head). And I still pick them up to read when I need to touch base with myself.

Most people are familiar with Williams' poem, Red Wheelbarrow, but one of the reasons I hunted down his collected works was The Dance (there's another one called the dance, but don't be fooled, this is the one you want to read), and then there is this one, This is Just to Say.

Adrienne Rich's Fact of a Doorframe, her collection of poetry, I bought my freshman year in college from the student body bookstore.  For the first time I read a poem where someone besides me had read the story of the Goose Girl. It's hard to find the poem itself online, so here it is for you to read:

The Fact of a Doorframe by Adrienne Rich

means there is something to hold
onto with both hands
while slowly thrusting my forehead against the wood
and taking it away
one of the oldest motions of suffering
as Makeba sings
a courage-song for warriors
music is suffering made powerful

I think of the story
of the goose-girl who passed through the high gate
where the head of her favorite mare
was nailed to the arch
and in a human voice
If she could see thee now, thy mother's heart would break
said the head
of Falada

Now, again, poetry,
violent, arcane, common,
hewn of the commonest living substance
into archway, portal, frame
I grasp for you, your bloodstained splinters, your
ancient and stubborn poise
—as the earth trembles—
burning out from the grain

1974

And then there was the other Emily—Emily Warn. I took a poetry workshop from her back when I stilled lived up north (it was in Anacortes and I couldn't afford to go for both days and stay over night and I ended up driving back in a fog so thick and white I was wondering if I'd drive off the road, but it was worth it). I picked up her chapbook of poetry, The Book of Esther there. You can hear me reading her poem, Trouble, here.

Well, I could go on about other poets I enjoy reading and who influence me and help me with both my external and internal life, but that means pulling more books down from my shelves and opening more tabs on my computer and eventually, I've got to put it all away and get on with my day! But, I hope you've enjoyed some of these poems I've shared during poetry month.